The 2011 Van-Erciş earthquake had a destructive magnitude 7.0 Mw and struck
eastern Turkey near the city of Van, October 23, 2011. The earthquake caused
heavy shaking across much of eastern Turkey. The number of casualties was 604
and of injured people more than 4000, caused by collapsed or heavily damaged
public, residential and commercial buildings. 17 days after the Van-Erciş
earthquake, the region was hit by another earthquake with a magnitude of
5.6 Mw on November 9, 2011. This second earthquake resulted in the collapse of
25 buildings which were mostly damaged during the first earthquake in Van city
centre. The total of dead and injured people caused by this earthquake was 40
and 30, respectively. Just after the earthquake, the government declared that all
disaster and emergency units of related ministries – agencies would work
according to 7 x 24 working principle in order to be able to carry out search and
rescue, temporary sheltering, debris removal, medical and psychosocial support
uninterruptedly etc. until the next notice. After respond and relief works that
continued some couple of weeks, 17,341 new housing units were built in the
urban areas in less than 11 months during recovery works. The recovery policy
in Turkey aims to reach a safe, improved life environment with respect to pre
disaster situations. Schools damaged during the earthquake were rebuilt until the
next fall semester with 2,600 new classrooms. During all respond, relief and
recovery stages of this disaster, the Disaster and Emergency Management
Presidency of Turkey was the key actor of management, coordination and
implementation. This study summarizes Turkey’s new disaster management
system and improvement policy.
Keywords: Van earthquake, respond, recovery, disaster and emergency
management.